A woman and her siblings never moved out of their mom's house. Now, 11 relatives live under one roof — and love it.
Brianna Wilson has lived in the same house since she was 20.
Wilson, now a 29-year-old student, content creator, and stay-at-home mom, is originally from Philadelphia, but in 2018, her mom relocated her family to New Jersey.
The 5,000-square-foot home sat on an acre of land.
It had plenty of room for Wilson, her three brothers, and her sister.
The kids were happy to live with their mom as they finished school.
However, as they grew into adulthood, Wilson and her siblings decided to stay in their multigenerational home. “We’ve always lived with my mom,” she said. “No one has ever moved out.
My older sister comes and goes, but she’s here.” Wilson met her husband in 2016, and they rekindled their romance in 2018, right around the time her family moved to New Jersey.
He eventually moved into the home as well, though they didn’t realize it would be permanent at the time. “I was just like, ‘OK, I’m still in college.
I might move out, later on,'” Wilson said. “But then we just got along so well, and it became such a fun thing to do.” When they had their sons, now 6 and 3, Wilson and her husband decided to raise their children in her mother’s home, along with her nephew.
Over time, two of Wilson’s brothers brought their partners into the house, one of whom welcomed a daughter into the home in the spring of 2026.
Now, 11 people live in the multigenerational house full-time, including four children. “We were still basically kids when we moved in, and then we just created our own lives along the way,” Wilson said.
When Wilson’s mom bought the house, it had five bedrooms upstairs, a guest room on the main floor, and an in-law suite in the basement.
Her mother settled into the primary suite, and Wilson and each of her siblings got their own room.
Wilson and her husband have lived in one of the upstairs bedrooms since they moved in.
They got creative with the space as their family grew. “When my husband and I moved in here, we had a walk-in closet that was super big,” she said. “Once we started having kids, I was like, ‘I want them to be super close.’ So we gutted out the walk-in closet and made it into another room.” Wilson and her husband use the bedroom in the in-law suite as their closet to make their kids’ room work.
Wilson’s mom owns her home outright.
She doesn’t have a mortgage payment, but she does have to pay about $18,000 in annual taxes on it, plus utilities and other household expenses.
Wilson said she and her brothers each pay her mom rent every month to split the expenses, though she doesn’t know how much each of them pays. “I don’t get into my brothers’ business,” she said. “You don’t want to be arguing, ‘I paid this’ and ‘You pay that.'” Wilson said she thinks of their setup as if her mom were the manager of their home, and everyone gives her money to cover certain bills or other household costs.
She frequently helps her mom with shopping, while her husband or brothers are more likely to take the lead on hiring maintenance workers or fixing things around the house.
They approach food similarly, sharing meals when it makes sense, without a hard-and-fast rule. “It really depends on the day of the week,” Wilson said.
Some days, she makes a meal her brothers wouldn’t like, and only her husband and children eat it with her.
On other days, she makes enough for everyone, and her brothers may pitch in to cover the cost, and vice versa.
Her mom, though, will always have food available to her. “When my mom cooks, she cooks for everybody,” Wilson said. “It’s not a question ever.
When we cook, sometimes it may be for everybody, but when any couple cooks, my mom is always included in the meal.” If everyone is cooking separately, Wilson said her mom can choose which food she eats.
Wilson also said they don’t run into issues sharing kitchen space, often cooking at the same time or taking turns (her social media pages are full of videos of her cooking alongside her family members).
They occasionally have traffic jams in the laundry room, but they make it work.
Wilson’s mom is a major source of support with childcare, as she is retired and can frequently watch Wilson’s kids.
Wilson also got a lot of support from her family when she had infants, and she’s enjoying doing the same for her brother, who welcomed a daughter this spring. “Now that I’m actually on the other side of it, I’m just happy that I can give them some relief,” she said.
She often reflects on how glad she is that her brother and his partner have others around the house to help when they’re tired or overwhelmed.
She knows it made a big difference for her when she was in their shoes.
She also thinks having more adults around, particularly her mom, ensured they could still have child-free fun even after becoming parents. “It’s not guaranteed that we’re going to be multigenerational for life, but at least in our 20s, we got to really experience and enjoy just being twenty-somethings,” she said. “The kids didn’t stop anything because we had a village.” For some, living with their in-laws might strain a relationship, but for Wilson and her husband, it’s been beneficial.
For instance, when they went through a more difficult season in their marriage in 2023, their family members rallied around them as a couple. “My mom and my brothers sat me down, and everybody just kind of emotionally regulated me,” she said, adding that they reassured her and spoke to her husband about how they could move forward together.
Now, Wilson is enjoying being that reassuring voice for her brother and his partner as they adjust to being parents. “It’s kind of fun that we can all sit down and keep one another together, because sometimes when you’re in an apartment by yourself or a house by yourself, there’s no one there to really say, ‘Hey, it’s not that serious,'” she said.
Wilson and her husband will soon be in transition, as she’ll graduate from her master’s program in December.
She could be open to new career opportunities, have another child, or want to travel more.
Still, Wilson said she wouldn’t move out of her mother’s home if she stayed in New Jersey.
Her family is happy there, and the financial benefits are hard to give up.
While her husband, an electrician, could support the family elsewhere, living with her mother gives them more financial freedom. “In this economy, I don’t think we would be able to live such a joyful life,” she said, particularly since she is a student. “That’s something else off the plate that can sometimes cause trouble in a relationship.
Instead of just surviving, you can actually live.”
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